The present invention relates to a process and apparatus for inserting wire ends into components and an apparatus for manufacturing of electrical cable bundles.
The relevant technical field is that of electrical cable bundles.
The present invention relates more specifically to the automatic manufacturing of simple electrical bundles; the term simple bundles is taken to mean electrical bundles comprising around ten electrical components of different types into which the ends of wire sections are inserted and with a maximum of approximately twenty components per bundle; moreover, the present invention applies more specifically to cable bundles comprising electrical components each of which has a relatively limited number of openings, and more specifically to cable bundles comprising components in which the openings are arranged less than in three rows.
Different processes and apparatuses used to carry out certain operations involved in the manufacturing of electrical cable bundles are already known.
Patent application FR 2 636 494 (RICARD) describes processes and apparatuses designed to insert electrical wire ends into components.
According to this document, the components are fitted on a pallet which can move along two rectangular axes. An insertion head, located confronting the pallet, grips insertion gripper devices in which the wire ends are held; the insertion grippers being adapted to suit the shape of the crimped terminal on the wire end.
Patent application EP 302 804 (RICARD) describes processes and apparatuses for crimping wire ends onto connections; according to this document, the wire ends held by grippers conveyed along carrier strips aligned with one another are transferred from a first carrier strip to a second carrier strip by a manipulator arm fitted with at least one gripper device.
Patent application EP 305 307 (Automatisme et Robotique Appliquee) describes grippers fitted on automatic cable making machine carrier strips and designed to hold one or several wires; the grippers comprise in particular two pairs of claws separated by an intermediate space in which a piston is pushed towards the tip of the gripper by a spring.
The general problem is to find a process and apparatus for manufacturing electrical cable bundles from wire sections the ends of which have been previously prepared and/or stripped.
At present, there is no known process nor apparatus for manufacturing electrical cable bundles that will allow industrial implementation; the processes and apparatuses described in application FR 2 636 494 have a certain number of inconveniences; the machine described in this document is bulky and complex; the operations required in the process described in this document involve a great amount of handling of the wire sections and call for complex movements of the wire ends and the components in which the wire ends are to be inserted.
Moreover, documents EP 302 804 and EP 305 307 do not describe actual processes and apparatuses allowing insertion of the wire ends and hence the manufacturing of electrical cable bundles.
The problem is more specifically to find a process and apparatus for manufacturing cable bundles capable of delivering completed cable bundles and thus capable of ensuring rapid handling of the bundle once it has been manufactured from wire sections and components and which is also capable of rapidly inserting the wire ends into the openings in the components.
The problem is also to obtain simple devices which can achieve high production rates of electrical cable bundles.
The problem is also to find processes and apparatuses which can handle the bundles in-process and post-process up to the stage where the complete bundles can be bound and dispatched for utilization.
The solution to the problem consists in finding an apparatus for inserting the ends of wire sections in openings of components characterized in that it comprises a device which moves the components relative to the wire end held in the mating grippers along a curved trajectory.
It is of advantage that the curved trajectory is formed by an arc of a circle of radius R1 situated in a vertical plane containing the axis ZZ70 along which the wire end held in the claws of the mating gripper is oriented.
It is of advantage that the devices that move the components with respect to the ends of the wires comprise component moving devices such that during the movement of the component according to the curved trajectory, the component remains parallel to itself (in a fixed direction)
It is of advantage that the apparatus comprises an insertion device specific to a predetermined type of component, which comprises on at-least one lateral face at least one end guide for guiding and inserting a wire end in the opening of the component, which insertion device comprises a mobile plate which can be rotated about a vertical axis YYS, on which the component can be placed, and at least one compression spring with the vertical axis YY5 as thrust axis, which mobile plate includes a linear cylinder for clamping the component on the insertion device.
It is of advantage that the devices for moving the component comprise a horizontal mobile plate which is connected to a horizontal fixed plate by means of two parallel rods, each equipped with an articulation separated by a distance that is equal to the value of the radius, so as to form (side view) a deformable parallelogram
It is of advantage that the insertion device and the clamping linear cylinder are mounted on an intermediate support which can rotate according to a vertical axis YY5 in relation to the mobile plate.
It is of advantage that the components of a predetermined type can be carried to the insertion device by means of of a feed guide which covers a horizontal axis ZZ61 and due to a feed device (such as an actuator) and to mobile devices that retain the component.
It is of advantage that the wire end guide comprises at least one guide face which is inclined at a .GAMMA. angle in relation to axis ZZ70, whose value is less than 45 degrees and preferably less or equal to 30 degrees.
The solution to the problem also consists in finding a process for inserting wire ends in openings of components comprising the following operations:
a--an apparatus according to the invention; PA1 b--a wire is placed in the claws of a mating gripper, PA1 c--the mating grippers are moved so as to position the end of the wire in a vertical plane containing the axis of the opening of the component which is held in a mobile insertion support; PA1 d--the component and the mobile insertion support are made to follow a curved insertion trajectory, preferably holding the component on a parallel plane to a fixed direction.
It is of advantage that in operation d, the end of the wire comes into contact with a median zone (a median point) of the guide face when a point related to the component reaches the apogee of the curved trajectory, and then insertion movement is continued according to the curved trajectory.
The solution to the problem also consists in finding an apparatus for manufacturing electrical cable bundles comprising a first horizontal linear carrier strip of axis XX1, which can move transfer grippers, each pair of adjacent transfer grippers capable of holding a wire section; the apparatus comprises a second horizontal linear carrier strip which can move support grippers, the apparatus comprising at least two mating grippers each of which can extract from the transfer grippers and the support grippers and can introduce into the support grippers ar least one wire end; the mating grippers can move along a guide rail of axis XX4 parallel with the axis (XX1) and the apparatus comprises a device which moves the components relative to the wire ends held in the mating grippers along a curved trajectory which is contained in a plane perpendicular to the axis XX1
The apparatus also comprises at least one wire end gathering gripper with at least one sweep arm; the gathering gripper can move along the guide rail independently of the movements of the mating grippers on this guide.
Due to the movement devices and according to the curved trajectory it is possible in a simple manner with the same devices, to align the opening with the wire end to be inserted in the opening at the end of the curved insertion trajectory and it is also possible to set a vertical offset between the axis of the wire end to be inserted and the axis of the opening into which the wire end is to be inserted, at a point during the the trajectory corresponding to the start of the insertion operation itself, i.e. on contact between the wire end and the front part of the opening or preferably a guide placed in front of the opening and used to guide the wire end into the opening.
One of the very important advantages of the invention is that it makes it possible to have an apparatus that inserts wire ends in very compact openings and which integrates the mechanisms required for the insertion movement of the component, the clamping mechanism of the component during the insertion operations, the positioning mechanisms according to a predetermined position thanks to devices adapted to each type of component, as well as the wire end guide devices for guiding the wire ends into the openings of the components during the insertion phase itself, and the devices used to evacuate the component after it has been equipped with all the wire ends to be inserted into its openings.
Moreover in the event that one of the components comprises openings in which the wire ends are to be inserted, which are arranged on different sides of the component, the wire ends can be inserted on the component on several of its sides thanks to the intermediate support which is mounted rotating in relation to the mobile plate.
Moreover the processes and apparatusses according to the invention make it possible to carry out the different operations for inserting the wire ends in the openings of electrical components at a very fast rate in the restricted space found along a carrier strip transporting the wire section ends.